Big ideas, big money mix at power-laden conferences

The audience at a TEDxChange event in New York. The conference industry is projected to continue expanding as information-hungry people seek personal interaction, even in a digital world. KATIE ORLINSKY, THE NEW YORK TIMES

Big Ideas

A creature of the information age, Tim Bourquin feeds on the Internet. He is an expert on webinars, email marketing campaigns and social-media strategies. He is the co-founder of AfterOffers.com, a website for buying and selling sales leads.

The dizzying pace of change makes it essential to stay current, so Bourquin does whatever it takes to hear the latest – even stepping beyond cyberspace into real-world spaces, where he can mingle. He likes to find himself in a crowded hallway, talking with someone he met on the fly. Or in a hotel bar, having a long, meandering conversation, because out of the laughter and chit-chat he sometimes forms a bond or has a flash of insight.

Which is why he goes to conferences – about 10 a year, he says, many in Las Vegas, others as far away as Japan, where he attended an industry summit on nanotechnology. Bourquin's travels challenge popular assumptions about how ideas are shared on a wired planet. Many experts believed that the need for face time would diminish, that people would avoid hassling with airports and rental cars once it was possible to connect instantly from anywhere.

The opposite is proving to be true. The conference industry is booming, expanding more or less in parallel with the Internet. Conferences not only are getting bigger and more numerous, they are tackling more daunting problems. Topics have gone global – renewable energy, atmospheric warming, the plundering of the seas. The very way information is exchanged is evolving, different now than in pre-Internet days when events were less plugged-in and interactive – more limited to the so-called sage on a stage.

“Some of the best shows have an online component,” says Bourquin, 44, who lives in Laguna Niguel. “You create a profile and upload your bio, your history, what you want to achieve, and other people can message you and set up meetings before the event.” With registration costs alone running up to $1,000, Bourquin says he works hard to make trips pay off. He keeps a notebook listing sessions he will attend, ideas he's picked up. Occasionally he tracks down would-be clients who have failed to return his emails – and finds, generally, that after a face-to-face conversation the email channels open up.

“There's a trust that gets built,” he says. “I'm no longer that faceless email that comes into them. It just kind of accelerates the relationship and brings it to a higher level.”

GLOBAL EXTRAVAGANZAS

Historically, important ideas tend to become isolated in their own disciplines – locked in silos, to use a standard metaphor. Pharmaceutical knowledge remains in the realm of pharmacy, the quirks of the aerospace industry occupy a different place. Breaking down those divisions has become a goal of some of the fastest-growing high-brow events, such as the $7,500-a-head TED Conferences, which have been held in Long Beach and have spun off thousands of smaller TEDx events worldwide. Other examples include the Clinton Global Initiative in New York, founded by former President Bill Clinton to address some of Earth's most pressing social needs, and the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills.

The latter has grown from a modest, daylong economic forum 16 years ago into a vigorous, three-day idea fest attended by 3,500 speakers and guests – including heads of state – from 50 nations.

During Milken's run at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, participants observe and feel the energy of some of the world's richest and most powerful people assembled in a single spot. Lines of gleaming BMWs and Mercedes-Benzes fill the valet lane. News networks stake out the lobby, erecting makeshift booths and broadcasting interviews. Remaining spaces become packed with so many men and women in suits that it's difficult to move. At a cocktail bar adjoining a wing of meeting rooms, a din of conversation envelops groups and individuals talking, drinking, pecking at their laptops.

Panelists this spring discussed human longevity – could someone live to be 1,000? Down a hallway, tech experts examined the spectacular growth of the cellphone app industry, now worth billions. Microsoft founder Bill Gates joined former British Prime Minister Tony Blair to discuss economic investment in Africa and efforts to eradicate polio. Larry King interviewed the world's richest man, Carlos Slim.

Every moment is filmed and posted online. But for all of the public banter, “some of the most interesting conversations go on in the speaker ready room,” one of the many semi-private places where the alliances are formed, where plans are set in motion that literally shape the course of world events, says Michael L. Klowden, CEO of the nonprofit Milken Institute.

Medical-science discussions have led to congressional funding, Klowden says. Former Vice President Al Gore hooked up with a film director at Milken, and their collaboration led to the documentary “An Inconvenient Truth,” about global warming, helping to earn Gore the Nobel Peace Prize.

“Two things are happening,” Klowden says. “Because of the incredible spread of information that's circulating around the world, people are better informed, in general, about what's going on away from their own narrow fields. And if they're not better informed, they want to be. There's a sense of the unsettled nature of the world and a feeling of necessity about getting together to discuss solutions.”

BOOMING MARKET

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, conventions and events are expected to expand by 44 percent from 2010 to 2020, far beyond the average projected growth of other industries. Orange County, with its appealing climate and tourist attractions, is reaping a share of the windfall. Demand for conference space is up at the Anaheim Convention Center and at beachfront resort hotels such as the Montage in Laguna Beach and the Ritz-Carlton in Laguna Niguel, site of a recent Brainstorm Green environmental conference.

The California Women's Conference, which achieved national prominence when former California first lady Maria Shriver brought in the Dalai Lama and Oprah Winfrey, returns to the Long Beach Convention Center in May after a year's hiatus.

The audience at a TEDxChange event in New York. The conference industry is projected to continue expanding as information-hungry people seek personal interaction, even in a digital world. KATIE ORLINSKY, THE NEW YORK TIMES
Daniel Akerson, chairman and CEO of General Motors, speaks during Fortune's Brainstorm Green Conference this spring at the Ritz-Carlton in Laguna Niguel. The invitation-only event encourages business leaders to solve environmental problems. MINDY SCHAUER, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
General Motors Chairman Daniel Akerson addressed hybrid and electric cars during his appearance at the Brainstorm Green Conference. MINDY SCHAUER, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
An audience member at the Fortune's Brainstorm Green Conference in Laguna Niguel asks a question of Daniel Akerson, chairman and CEO of General Motors. The three-day event took place at the end of April. MINDY SCHAUER, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Kendall Powell, left, chairman and CEO of General Mills, takes the stage with interviewer Marc Gunther of Fortune magazine during the Brainstorm Green Conference in Laguna Niguel. MINDY SCHAUER, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Tim Bourquin, co-founder of AfterOffers.com, sits in his home office in Laguna Niguel. He regularly attends conferences as a way to stay current on technology trends and to catch up with key business connections. JOSHUA SUDOCK, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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